Does the inside of the headlight housing get dirty?

[deckeda]

I mean over time, does dust or whatever get in there and if so, how do you clean them? Super-long curved QTip?

My stock low beams seem weak, although I consider my stock high beams to be quite good.

I need better lighting because I drive mostly at night on the highway. Can't afford to go HID and frankly it's pretty confusing anyway.

So I think I'm gonna try 9006 Silver Stars and call it a day. Proly re-aim the lights, since my broken springs have dropped the car a little ...

But back to my question above.

[Maple50175]

Yeah like everything nothing is really dust proof. In my headlight housing i have broken class from prior broken lightbulbs that broke in it. I dont know how you would clean it... you could always take out the whole light i guess and clean it with water and make sure its fully dry and put it back in your car?


Yeah

[Kurobei]

Originally posted by Maple50175
Yeah like everything nothing is really dust proof. In my headlight housing i have broken class from prior broken lightbulbs that broke in it. I dont know how you would clean it... you could always take out the whole light i guess and clean it with water and make sure its fully dry and put it back in your car?


Yeah

You mean like run water inside the housing and let it dry?? NO! NO! don't do that!

My sisters prelude had broken glass in one of her USDM lights so I thought that flushing it out with water would be a easy and safe fix. All it did was get ugly water spots and the screws that hold that reflector thing over the bulb started to turn orange from rust. It also started to crack the plastic chrome layer in the housing.

My best advice even tho it's probably scary for some people is to actually open up the housings (meaning taking the glass/plastic off) and do a very good cleaning with windex, simple green whatever u prefer to get the dust,glass, etc. out. This would also be a good chance to actually black house your headlamps if u want that jdm look. My sister has JDM lamps on her car due to this method.

I'll post pictures of the water damage later....

[Maple50175]

ohh then nm! lol thanks for clarifying!

[Kurobei]

H20 damaged lamp

This is an example of what washing your headlights can do with the flush method. NOTE: these headlamps were supposingly dry when they were put back on but still I guess moisture or whatever got soaked in the plastic or something.

If you ever blackhoused these housings b4, you can tell the plastic material is a weird flexy plastic (probably to absorb the bulbs heat) so probably when these were put back on and the lights were used, the heat from the bulbs probably cooked the trapped water causing it to shrink a little thus deforming the chrome layer on the plastic.

U can also see signs of rust starting to form along the inner portion of the lamp.

If you want to get rid of dirt buildup inside ur lamps, i recommend melting the silcone, taking the housings apart, and then clean the lamps by hand. This way you will be sure of no water spots and u'll know when it's really dry!

On the chrome plastic housings they get dirty real easily by oils secreted by your hands. You should wear some sort of laytex gloves or try not touch them all together. I personally used simple green to clean my finger prints off them when I blackhoused my jdm's.

[deckeda]

Thanks, Kurobei

I was thinking the best way to clean them (if in fact they are dirty/dusty --- I don't really know) would be to take them apart. And yes this does sound a bit scary. Do you know of a DIY anywhere?

You mentioned blacking them out. I had considered this; thought it might look cool on my Solaris Silver SE since everything else about the car is pretty much some shade of silver or black (if you ignore all the chrome LOL).

However: Here's my dumb question. Doesn't blacking them out reduce output, since the reflector can't reflect as well if it ain't as shiny???

Thanks again.

[deckeda]

Ah, you posted before I did re: how to do it.

Uh, now what about my dumb question re: reduced light output w/ blacked reflectors? As you know I can't really get much darker than the stock setup!

[Kurobei]

However: Here's my dumb question. Doesn't blacking them out reduce output, since the reflector can't reflect as well if it ain't as shiny???

Thanks again. [/B][/QUOTE]

There's a right and wrong way of blacking out your housings. I personally never blackhoused USDM's but I know for a fact you cannot blackhouse the inner back concaved portion of the inner lamps (where the bulbs reside in) The outer housings is where u would want to paint. The area to paint is easier found on JDM's coz it's a totally seperate piece that u can take out.

There is an excellent DIY on this board that shows u how to do this to USDM's. There are a few cbtuners on this board that have some that are very nicely done. Nice inexpensive way to get the jdm look.

If this is your route, u can find the legit stanley clear corner lamps on e-bay sometimes. Blackhouse that and basically you have JDM CB Accord Coupe headlamps with the exception of using 9005/6 and nipples on the headlamps.